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Brightcove Player Release Notes

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Brightcove Player

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Release Notes

Note: By default, updates are applied to all players automatically. To prevent auto-updating of a player you must set it to manual updating (also known as locking a player). You can do this in the Studio Players module or using the Player Management API.

Opting out of auto-updates should be a temporary measure, applied while you resolve any issues that the update creates. If you do not update players to the current version, you are missing out on new features and bug-fixes, and older versions of the player will cease to be supported at some point

VERSION 6 - v6.31.1

6 Mar 2019

Added support for fetching related videos from the Playback API

Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where ID3 cuechange events were not working on iOS 12

Bug Fix: Mouse time tooltip should be visible over progress time tooltip

Bug Fix: Use the same inBandMetadataTrackDispatchType that is exposed by mux.js

Bug Fix: Prevent exceptions from being thrown by the MediaSource

Bug Fix: Use native captions on iOS Chrome, so they function correctly

VERSION 5 - 5.28.1

27 Nov 2017

Allow playsinline and muted options at the player level

Extend the bc global with per-embed properties. In short, this improves support for multiple simultaneous players on a single page using the advanced/in-page embed; however, mixing 5.x and 6.x players is still not advised as it can cause icons to go missing in some situations. More information will be coming in the form of documentation on this topic.

Fixed an issue where the Big Play Button was missing for players using the Graphite skin on iOS 11.

Fixed an issue parsing some ID3 tags with an incorrect PES_packet_length header.

Previous releases

VERSION 6 - v6.30.1

8 Feb 2019

Allow delaying automatic player initialization until after ad block detection has made a decision, using the configuration "wait_for_ad_block_detect": true. This advanced configuration is currently only available via the Player Management API and no short-term plan exists to support it in the Studio.

Bug Fix: Resolved an issue where 608 captions may be out of order on Internet Explorer 11 Windows 7

Update videojs-playlist to 4.3.0

Updated video.js to 7.4.3

VERSION 6 - v6.29.2

15 Jan 2019

Make players responsive to browser size by default 1

Bug Fix: Cleanly dispose of HLS/DASH source handler

Bug Fix: Resolve an occasional issue where Brightcove Player dropped video_impression and video_view when using the IMA3 plugin v3.x and autoplay on

Bug Fix: Roll back usage of the sendBeacon API to reverse a 0.1% increase in beaconing failures

Update to Video.js 7.4.22

Bug Fix: When used with a track tag, the default attribute now functions correctly and starts the captions automatically.

1It should be noted that, in this context, making the player "responsive to browser size by default" is distinct from making the player fluid. The following should clarify the new feature:

To be clear: static players will not suddenly become fluid!

The use of "responsive" in this context means we have enabled the new Video.js responsive option in the Brightcove Player by default (whereas it is off by default in Video.js). This option will cause a vjs-layout-* class to be applied to the player based on a default set of breakpoints whenever the size of the player is changed. This means that the "responsiveness" is not actually based on the browser viewport size, but on the size of the embedded player.

Two small UI adjustments have been made based on this new Video.js option. It is anticipated these adjustments should not affect many users, if any, but in the interests of completeness, they are in:

Captions settings dialog

Social plugin dialog

Users who have responsive embeds from the Studio or via Video.js' fluid option will be able to take advantage of the new vjs-layout-* classes to improve their player UI customizations based on the player size. And users who have statically-sized embeds will still get a vjs-layout-* class applied to their player, but it won't change unless the size of the player changes at runtime.

2Video.js v7.4.2 includes new functionality for live streaming, including new Live text indicator. If you are building a skin from scratch, and using the skin: false attribute, you must include the following CSS to be sure the Live indicator does not appear:

Fixed an issue where, using Flash, the player would not seek to live if outside the live window

Fixed an issue where disabling autoplay after player initialization would not be respected

Fixed an issue to properly detect AdBlock Pro on iOS

Fixed an issue with playback stuttering after a manual quality change in IE and Edge

Upgraded Video.js to 7.2.4

When available, use sendBeacon and attempt to send any pending metrics on window unload

VERSION 6 - v6.24.1

19 Sep 2018

Increased default playlist per-page limit to 100 items

Bug Fix: Fixed an issue in Android Chrome that would cause the player's control bar to display incorrectly

Bug Fix: Fixed an issue with the catalog.getLazySequence() method not working with multiple sequences

VERSION 6 - v6.23.0

11 Sep 2018

New feature: Allow loop to be set as a config, option, or query parameter for iframes

Fixed an issue where engagement could occasionally show drops at 10 second intervals due to an internal timing issue

Upgraded to Video.js 7.2.2

VERSION 6 - v6.22.8

27 Aug 2018

Fixed an issue introduced in v6.22.5 that broke replay functionality when playing segmented streams

VERSION 6 - 6.22.7

23 Aug 2018

Fixed an issue where a custom base URL for the catalog was not being set properly. This caused IP-restricted content to fail to play back

Does not send non-essential parameters with beacons when they would push the URL length over the limit

VERSION 6 - 6.22.5

14 Aug 2018

Added Playback API support for AD_CONFIG_NOT_FOUND errors, limit/offset query parameters for playlists, and a generic get method that can return a Promise

Support using a string value for autoplay when passed as an option or in the player configuration, allowing the Brightcove Player to bypass native autoplay and attempt autoplay itself

Upgraded to Video.js 7.1.0

Code refactoring: Removed redundant code related to mute toggle button on iOS now that the player is on Video.js 7.1.0

Bug Fixes:

Fix two possible sources of memory leaks on player disposal

Clear the buffer on manual quality selection

Continue after disconnect for demuxed streams

Ensure the Big Play Button is shown for live content when autoplay does not result in a successful autoplay

Fix an issue where ad_config_id could be skipped for SSAI sources

Fix an issue that could throw an error in iOS 9; this issue did not make it out of pre-release status

VERSION 6 - 6.21.0

26 Jul 2018

Fixed an issue where non-latin 608 caption characters would not display correctly in IE

Added support for 608 captions with fmp4 segments

VERSION 6 - 6.20.0

19 Jul 2018

Fixed an issue where multiple audio tracks may play in Flash simultaneously

Upgrade to Video.js 7.0.5 (Internet Explorer 9 and 10 are no longer supported, see https://support.brightcove.com/brightcove-player-system-requirements for details)

VERSION 6 - 6.19.2

29 Jun 2018

Upgraded Video.js to version 6.10.3

VERSION 6 - 6.19.1

12 Jun 2018

Fix default sizing for responsive/fluid players to be 16:9

Properly encode catalog IDs when constructing Playback API URLs

Fixed stuttering issues with HLSe Flash playback

Older releases

VERSION 6 - 6.19.0

23 May 2018

Added support for setting the start time of the first video played using the data-start-time attribute

Exposed a few properties of the mediainfo object earlier

Updated player info modal to support detection of more Brightcove plugins as well as fixing issues with multiple in-page player embeds

Upgraded to videojs-errors 4.0.0

VERSION 6 - 6.18.4

15 May 2018

Bug Fix: Hide menus in Luna when control bar is minimized and a menu button is focused

Restored old behavior (removed in v6.17.5) of hiding the Big Play Button while waiting for autoplay and tweak code to handle autoplay manually

VERSION 6 - 6.18.3

2 May 2018

Addressed an issue where calling bc() as a getter in a plugin could confuse the initialization process; note that using bc() or videojs() as a getter is not recommended - use videojs.getPlayer() instead!

No longer overrides casing in names in chapters menu

Fixed an issue where focus on the play button would keep the control bar visible on mobile

Silenced a non-breaking error message when a pause interrupts a play request in HLS playback

Adjusted last menu position when fullscreen control is disabled

Fixed ad failover support in iframe embeds.

VERSION 6 - 6.18.1

19 Apr 2018

Added support for populating the player's playlist via catalog searches and/or a sequence of queries

Allow configuration describing how query string parameters should be attached to the global window object for iframe players

Support ad_failover in the player configuration for selecting either client-side IMA ads or server-side SSAI ads

Updated to Video.js 6.8.0

VERSION 6 - 6.17.5

28 Mar 2018

Reverted: Due to Chrome 66 autoplay policy changes, no longer hide the Big Play Button while waiting for autoplay. Brightcove plans to replace this behavior in the coming weeks in a way that works more completely.

Now use HTTPS URLs where we were previously using protocol-relative URLs. This may address some issues that have been seen on uncommon and officially unsupported platforms where protocol-relative URLs were interpreted using the file: protocol.

VERSION 6 - 6.17.3

6 Mar 2018

Upgrade to Video.js to 6.7.4

Bug Fixes

Fix a regression in Video.js that caused the progress control to misbehave with SSAI sources

Fix usage of EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME in live streams

Revert a change to a new CSS minifier after it caused a breakage in at least one customer player

Address a bug introduced in 6.16.0 that would cause OnceUX players to throw an error

Fix a regression for getting a player by the tech's ID

VERSION 6 - 6.16.5

26 Feb 2018

Bug Fixes

Revert a change to a new CSS minifier after it caused a breakage in at least one customer player

The sort() , reverse() , and shuffle() methods fire the playlistsorted event, which is currently not supported in playlist UI plugins - either the default or legacy varieties; Brightcove will be releasing updates to those in the coming weeks

VERSION 6 - 6.10.2

29 Nov 2017

Fixed an issue where preview players with playlists were not displayed correctly

VERSION 6 - 6.10.1

27 Nov 2017

Extended the bc global with per-embed properties. In short, this improves support for multiple simultaneous players on a single page using the advanced/in-page embed; however, mixing 5.x and 6.x players is still not advised as it can cause icons to go missing in some situations. More information will be coming in the form of documentation on this topic.

Updated to Video.js 6.4.0

Updated to videojs-playlist 4.0.2

Fixed an issue where players configured with the playlist UI in the Studio are incorrectly rendered

Fixed an issue parsing some ID3 tags with an incorrect PES_packet_length header

VERSION 6 - 6.9.0

7 Nov 2017

Use MSE for HLS playback on IE11

Fixed an issue with CEA-608 captions being placed in the wrong CC channel

VERSION 5 - 5.27.0

7 Nov 2017

Use MSE for HLS playback on IE11

Fixed an issue with CEA-608 captions being placed in the wrong CC channel

VERSION 6 - 6.8.3

24 Oct 2017

Reduced rebuffering and stalling in live streams with small live windows.

VERSION 5 - 5.26.6

24 Oct 2017

Reduced rebuffering and stalling in live streams with small live windows.

5.17.0

1 Feb 2017

In order to support HLS in a background tab, this release removes HLS support in IE10. In most cases, playback will fallback seamlessly to an MP4. We have not delivered this update to any players that have greater than 0.5% IE10 usage.

Notable features in this release include:

Enable background tab playback

Fix an incompatibility with IE8 and a potential memory leak in analytics

Fixed some memory leaks in the player

Corrected the HLS build process to support ES3

Address some issues with inaccurate start_time_ms reporting

Update to video.js 5.16.0

5.15.0

20 Jan 2017

Notable features in this release include:

Bug Fix: In playlists, address an issue with detection of playlist UI plugin

5.1.14

Fixed an issue where setting the skin property to false would still include some styles

Fixed an issue where some control bar elements in the Graphite skin were not keyboard-accessible

Fixed an issue where the Big Play Button in the Luna skin was not keyboard-accessible

Fixed a capitalization mistake in German translations

Fixed an issue where chaptered video was not showing the chapter icon in the progress bar

5.1.12

25 Mar 2016

Prefer HTTPS DASH sources when playing on HTTPS pages.

Update to video.js v5.8.3.

Improve video impression and view tracking for some player configurations.

Synchronize the dock fade-out animation with the control bar.

HLS: Fixed an issue that could cause older IEs to re-download video segments that had already been buffered.

The bc() function now accepts a video element id string, like videojs() .

Fixed an issue video was not sized correctly in fullscreen.

Fixed an issue where the progress bar was off by 2 pixels in Firefox and some IEs.

Fixed graphite skin selectors to stop breaking previews.

Synchronized the dock fade-out animation with the control bar.

HLS: Fixed an issue with 608 parsing resulting in garbled captions.

HLS: Added support for the musical note character in captions.

HLS: Fixed an issue with IE11 on Windows 10 occasionally having trouble playing HLS content.

5.1.8

22 Feb 2016

The base CSS specificity of player style rules has been reduced to one class-level selector in the Luna skin. This makes it easier to override default style rules and makes styling customizations in Luna more compatible with the Graphite skin.

Update video.js to v5.8.0

Fix an issue creating the player in an iframe in Firefox with "display" initially set to "none"

5.1.7

22 Feb 2016

This release was required to fix an issue we were seeing with player preview functionality. There was no change to client code whatsoever.

5.1.5

16 Feb 2016

Improvements to the dock

Fixed font-sizing

Added player description to dock

Improved the gradient

Fixed the play icon in the playlist picker

Fixed player sizing alongside the playlist picker in an iframe

Fixed fullscreen player sizing in an iframe

Removed ES5 shim in all browsers except for IE8

Improved user-agent detection for IE8

Fixed a bug with styles in IE8

Cue points now work correctly with playlists

Work around getComputedStyle() returning null inside an iframe with 'display: none' in Firefox

Included vjs-font with graphite skin

Updated videojs-contrib-hls to v1.3.8

Fall back to Flash-based HLS if MSE exists but does not support mp4

Try other renditions if the first playlist immediately 404s

Fixed a problem in Firefox with updateend event handling

Fixed a bug with 'duration' reporting incorrect values

Fixed a bug where 'ended' was not always fired consistently

Be more careful about what parts of the buffer are cleared in a live stream

5.0.9

26 Jan 2016

The Brightcove Player version 5 is a major update that includes significant improvements for HLS playback and user customization.

Most users of the Brightcove Player will be automatically updated starting February 8. We recommend automatic updates for most customers to provide the best end-user experience with the latest features and bug fixes. Keeping your player up-to-date also makes it easier for Brightcove support to help when needed.

This table shows how this update will affect customers based on specific features and requirements, and who should opt out of automated updates for now.

Current player version / feature
If you are using:

Recommended action

Brightcove Player version 1.x with the following features enabled:

Advertising (via IMA3 plugin)

Social sharing

Custom endscreen

Encrypted HLS

ID3 cue points

Live HLS Playback (without DVR)

Playlists

Overlays

Custom plugins

HLS playback

MP4 playback

No action required. Automatic update starting February 8, 2016

Manual update available now recommended for testing

Brightcove Player version 2.x or 5.x (pre-releases)

No action required. Automatic update starting February 8, 2016

Smart Player (Legacy, Flash-based player)

No action required. Players will not be automatically updated. Log-in to the Studio to create a new Brightcove Player

New features

Brightcove Player version 5 has new support for HLS video without using Flash. In this release, in all browsers that support the Media Source Extensions API (MSE), the Brightcove Player can play HLS videos without Flash! That means Flash is not used on Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Microsoft Edge. Flash will still be used for older versions of IE but can be disabled by config.

MSE HLS provides several huge benefits:

Videos will load fast and play smoothly, even at high resolutions and high frame rates, including 4K and 60FPS video - on modest hardware

It uses approximately -50% of the CPU load to render the same videos, meaning batteries will last longer and your laptop fan won￯﾿ﾢ￯ﾾﾀ￯ﾾﾙt turn on

Power saving and other browser settings to limit the use of Flash will no longer have any effect on the player regardless of the player￯﾿ﾢ￯ﾾﾀ￯ﾾﾙs dimensions

Other features in this release include:

New skin - Based on significant UX research we have built a new skin that incorporates many changes. These include a new, centered big play button, new colors, new seek bar behavior, and a new title bar called the dock. Usability testing participants especially loved the new timeline that expands on hover and makes it easier to seek to a specific time. You can now choose between the default new skin, called Luna, and the old 1.x skin, now called Graphite.

Initial support for live captions - this release now supports many 608/708 caption encoding systems. This includes support for the popular pop-on and roll-up methods and basic styling

Also in this version, we have made many updates to improve the programming model for customization, including simplifications to our skinning model and the API for plugins. These changes bring us up-to-date with our latest open source release, Video.js 5, which you can read about here. You will also notice that we have also synchronized our version numbering between Video.js and Brightcove Player releases.

v1.14.30

11 Dec 2015

Notable changes in this release include:

Fix for catalog requests that returned an empty array of poster or thumbnail images.

v1.14.29

30 Oct 2015

Fix for catalog requests with null or missing posters, captions, or sources.